My Latin teacher brokered a deal over our last quiz of the semester this morning. We could take it worksheet-style, open book, open friend, if we agreed to do some English-to-Latin on Monday. Really? Is it Christmas already?
I'm sure that some of the students in my class view English-to-Latin as a daunting task, but I love it! (I had to rework that sentence four times. College is messing with my innate sense of grammar. What is happening to meeeee?) Being able to write in Latin isn't generally seen as terribly important. Latin is mostly learned for the purpose of reading ancient or medieval texts.
But really, if no one had ever practiced writing it, we wouldn't have wonderful things like Latin translations of Harry Potter, now would we? The world would be a lesser place without such.
That, and it's just kind of fun. I mean, once I'm done translating a sentence, I just want to stand up and go, "Whooo, yeah! What now?!" Actually, sometimes I do that when I'm reading Latin after I figure out a particularly tricky sentence. But come on, how much more justified is it when I'm doing it the other way around?
On a completely unrelated note, I stumbled across some pirate-themed music today. I don't know whether to feel nerdy or awesome. Perhaps both? Did you know that there was such a thing as a Scottish, pirate-themed metal band?
This isn't the Scottish pirate metal, but I've been listening to it repeatedly tonight:
It's purtifuls. Say it out loud. Think about it. There ya go...what? No? Oh, okay. Sorry. We're all entitled to make up new words, you know. It's our prerogative as speakers of language.
Listening to: "Down With The Ship" by Naomi King
Reading: Snakecharm by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
I like your new word, it's pretty excellent :) And you should definitely start cheering in the middle of your class after you translate your sentences! :)
ReplyDeleteI use the word purtyful all the time! We simply choose different spelling.
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